Candidates R10 – Kramnik, Aronian, Carlsen win

From March 14 to April 1, 2013, FIDE and AGON – the World Chess Federation’s commercial partner – are staging the 2013 Candidates Tournament for the World Chess Championship 2013. It will be the strongest tournament of its kind in history. The venue is The IET, 2 Savoy Place, London. The Prize Fund to be shared by the players totals €510,000. The winner of the Candidates will become the Challenger to Viswanathan Anand who has reigned as World Champion since 2007. The main sponsor for the Candidates is State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic SOCAR, which has sponsored elite events chess in the past.

Round ten report

Once again the spectators were given a feast of great chess, with a bit of everything for everyone. It wasn’t all wins, as the first game to end was Radjabov-Svidler in a mere 21 moves, but short of a miniature, a quick draw will always be the first to end. The two players played a main line Gruenfeld in which Svidler’s queen took a one pawn on a2 and was eventually forced into a repetition by rook attacks on a1 and b1.

The rest of the games were clearly headed to lengthy battles, each according to the style of the players. Vladimir Kramnik sprang his pet Berlin against Alexander Grischuk, and it was a typical trenchwar affair with each trying to prod and push the other into a fatal mistake. For nearly 30 moves this went on as the pieces continued to come off, and just when it seemed as if the draw were inevitable, Alexander Grischuk suffered a momentary lapse of reason and exchanged into a dead lost pawn endgame. This was a vitally important victory for Kramnik, who with this win stays within fighting distance of the leaders and keeps his chances alive with 6.0/10.

The game between Levon Aronian (above, carefully observed by Magnus Carlsen) and Vassily Ivanchuk not only followed the general course of their first game, but even their actual tournament. The Ukrainian decided to play a very controversial Budapest Gambit, possibly a first in a World Championship or Candidates game, and found a well-prepared Aronian on the other side. The Armenian played a line that had been championed by Yasser Seirawan, and soon achieved a very strong advantage. It was a curious and fortunate turn of fate for those watching on Playchess as Seirawan just so happened to be the commentator of the day, and provided thorough analysis to the delight of the subscribers.

Again, as in previous games, Levon slowly lost much of this advantage, but Ivanchuk also played as in many other games, and by move 21 was down to less than 20 minutes on the clock, with no increment to succor him. Aronian then did something fairly unexpected and switched from a positional game to a flat out attacking game, and created powerful threats and complications. This turned out to be an extremely clever decision and Ivanchuk’s flag fell before move 30. With Carlsen’s game still going, this temporarily put Aronian in first with 6.5/10, and he could only pray that Magnus fail in his effort to convert an advantage.

The world number one, Magnus Carlsen, showed that while he might have suffered badly in his opening play against Radjabov, it was a one off, and this was not a hole future opponents could hope to exploit. Gelfand understandably was more than willing to repeat the line, but should have expected Carlsen to be amply prepared for it. He was and the opening was clearly in favor of White this time. It was hardly a win via opening preparation though, but it was enough for the Norwegian to work with and tighten the screws on a resurging Gelfand, who was fresh from two wins. Though enjoying a big advantage, a final mistake by the Israeli on move 39 made Magnus’s work easier, and he converted. Magnus Carlsen leads with 7.0/10 with four rounds to go.

GM Daniel King analyses the game Carlsen vs Gelfand

Summary by Albert Silver, Pictures by Ray Morris-Hill

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Schedule and results

The games start at 14:00h = 2 p.m. London time = 15:00h European time, 17:00h Moscow, 8 a.m. New York. You can find your regional starting time here. Note that Britain and Europe switch to Summer time on March 31, so that the last two rounds will start an hour earlier for places that do not swich or have already done so (e.g. USA). The commentary on Playchess begins one hour after the start of the games and is free for premium members.

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN The games will be broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.